Ethereum, first choice for phishers; reveals Kaspersky report

The Kaspersky report unveils that $2.3 million has been generated in Q2 of 2018 by phishers who mostly deceive the Ethereum users. The deceitful tactics of the cybercriminals make the victims, themselves transfer crypto-funds to the Ethereum wallets.

Kaspersky, the well established cybersecurity firm has recently published its report, namely, Spam and phishing in Q2 2018. In the report, it is mentioned that crypto investors are the primary target of malefactors who get duped by the fake websites of ICO. These criminals making their distinct presence online.

Kaspersky report

It is reported that these fake websites belong to start-ups that are based on the Ethereum platform. These start-ups collect money by wrong means in order to evolve their blockchain platform. According to Kaspersky report, “Cybercriminals continue using the names of new ICO projects to collect money from potential investors that are trying to gain early access to new tokens.”

The report has further unveiled, “Sometimes phishing sites pop up before official project sites.” Besides, making the victims transfer cryptocurrency funds to Ethereum wallets, the cybercriminals insert in the outbound emails, the links of crowdfunding. In the former case scenario, victims assume that their investments are channelised in a proper round of ICO. However, illegal benefactors get hold of the Ether funds.

In the recent Experty fraudulent case, Ethereum of total worth $150,000 has been lost by the ICO participants to a deceptive scheme of pre-ICO. From the Experty websites, which have been accessed by the participants, the scammers stole relevant data of the investors. Now these investors were convinced by the scammers to make funds transaction in Ether through fake link.

Kaspersky has so long been able to curb the attempts of the phishers. As per the statement of the company, with the help of antiphishing system, it has “prevented 58,000 user attempts to connect to phishing websites masquerading as popular cryptocurrency wallets and markets.”

Alexander Gostev, the chief antuivirus expert of Kaspersky has ratified the figure that two thousand cases of phishing have been recorded last year. In 2017, itself the ICO based markets have incurred a loss of more than $300 million due to the cyber attacks like phishing and hacking by the criminals.